Dollard St. Laurent’s decade-long tenure within the Canadiens’ organization started while he was still playing junior hockey, suiting up for the Montreal Junior Canadiens before making the jump to the Quebec Senior Hockey League Montreal Royals. After paying his dues with the Habs’ affiliates, the rugged defenseman made his NHL debut with a three-game appearance in 1950-51.

As the veterans of the 1944 and 1946 Stanley Cup championship teams gave way to a new generation of heroes, St. Laurent spent more and more time with the big club, playing 40 games the following season and then sticking with the team for good in 1952-53.

For the next six seasons, the Verdun, QC native made his side of the ice as inhospitable as possible to enemy forwards, his punishing hip checks and obvious enthusiasm for his job making him a fan favorite. St. Laurent’s name was engraved on the Stanley Cup for the first time following the 1952-53 season, his first full campaign with the Habs.

An offensive threat in his amateur days, the 5-foot-11, 175-pound rearguard concentrated on taking care of the D zone once he graduated to the NHL, but he still managed to contribute at least a dozen points a season to the Canadiens cause. The hard-hitting blue-liner occasionally led the rush himself and was a more than able playmaker on those occasions that he did venture beyond center ice.

Other Stanley Cup titles followed in 1956, 1957, and 1958, with the popular and outgoing St. Laurent enjoying the most productive campaign of his career in 1957-58, a 23-point effort in his final season with the Canadiens.

Sold to a rebuilding Chicago club before the 1958-59 season got underway, St. Laurent became a steadying veteran presence on the Blackhawks team, capturing the Stanley Cup again in the spring of 1961.

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Traded to Chicago by Montreal for cash and future considerations (the loan of Norm Johnson, February 20, 1959), June 3, 1958.